The folks at PC Perspective have put together a comprehensive look at the Windows XP version of the Eee PC, now available from Best Buy and other retailers. While the hardware is identical to the original Linux model, you do get a bit more than a change of operating system in the XP version.

First of all, Asus has included a full version of Microsoft Works, which is Microsoft's budget version of Office. Honestly, I'd recommend removing this application and replacing it with OpenOffice.org at your earliest convenience. OpenOffice.org takes up less space (Works eats about 400MB of precious disk space) and is more likely to be compatible with Office documents.

The XP version will also apparently be available at two separate price points. For $399 you can pick up a basic version with just Windows and nothing more. For $469 you also get a 4GB SDHC card, effectively doubling your amount of storage. It's not 100% clear from the PC Perspective post, but I think that extra $70 also gets you a cute little travel mouse. It's pictured in the first page of the article, and it certainly doesn't come with the original Linux version of the Eee PC. Plus I seem to remember Asus including a mouse when it started selling Windows XP versions of the Eee PC in Japan a while back.

[via Eee PC - Blog]

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. You can use any SD/SDHC/MMC card with the Eee PC. And you can plug any USB flash drive into the USB port too. But if you want to spend your money on flash memory cards or drives designed for the Eee PC, A-DATA wants to help.

The company has announced Eee-branded SDHC memory cards and S70i USB flash drives. Basically the only thing differentiating these memory devices from other A-DATA products is the fact that they're white, and they have an Eee PC logo on the packaging. No word on how much these super special memory devices will cost. But I think it's fair to say they probably won't be worth the price.

[via Eee PC Blog]